Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-23
Dr.. Talmage breaches to the Veter-
ans ofthe Navy--Seamen Remem-
bered at the Decoration Time,
No Enough Said of Those Who Fought
ana Died on Ship Board in
the Late War;
Two Great LightsHeld Up Before the Sea
taring Man In AdmiraIs Footo
and Farragut.
special to the Gazette.

Of those who fell in the war, the nsva
posts invited the Rsv.T. Dewitt Talmage
ID, TO preach q sermon at the Brooklyn
tabernacle appropriate to the occasion, as
often, in the annual commemoration, but
little had been said of those who served
in the navy. An American flag adorned
the pulpit, and the congregation sang
with crest spirit:
Nv country, It's Of thee,
sweet land OF liberty.
DIT Tslmage'S text was from James Iii
behold Also the Ships" He said
II this exclamation was appropriate
about $50 years ago, when il was writ
ten concerning the crude fishing smacks
mat sailed Lake Gaiilee, how much more
appropriate in an age which has launched
from the dry docks for purposes OF peace
the Arizona of the GuiOn Line, the
CITY Of Richmond Of the Inman Line, the
Egypt of the National Line, the GermaniC
OF the White Star Line, the CIrCassia of
the Anchor Line, the. Etrurla of the Gu
nard Line, and the Great Eastern, with
null $50 feet lOng-not a!failure, for il
1elped lay the Atlantic cable, and that
was enough glory for one ships existence
and in an ege which for purposes of
war has launched the sore W-sloops like
the Idaho, the Shenandoah, the Ossippe,
and Our iTOnclqGs ike the kalamazoo, the
Roanoke and the DundeTbeTg, and those
which have already been buried in the
deep like the Monitor, the HOusatOnic, the
Weenawken anG the TeCumSeh, the tenn
pests ever since
SOUNDING A VOLLEY
over their watery sepulchres and the
SCARED veterans of war shipping like the
Constitution or the Alliance, or the Con
sta.lsliOn, thst have swung into the naval
Yards 10 spend their last days, their
1ecks now all silent Of the feet that trod
them, their rigging all silent OF the hands
-Rat chung 10 them, their port holes silent
u The bTaZen thTOats that once Numbered
out Of them. II in the first century,
when war vessels were dependent on the
0aTs that padded 1T the side of them for
propulsion, my text was suggestive with
now much more emphasis and meaning
sGd overwhelming "reminiscences we can
cry cut, IS we see the KearsRge lay
across the bow of the Alabama and sink
ing il, teaching foreign nations they had
better keep their hand off our American
GIT, or as We see the ram Albem2Tle of
Inc Confederate running out and
the Roanoke and up and
down the coast, throwing every
thing into confusion as no other
craft ever did, pursued by the Miami, the
Ceres, the SOUtbheId, the Sassscus, the
MsttGbesett, the Whitehead, the CommO-
,Ore Hun, the Louisiana, the Minnesota,
sad other armed vessels, all trying in
vain to catch her until Captain Cushing,
twenty-One years of age, and his men
blew neT up, himself and only one other
escaping, and as l see the flagship Hart
ford, aud the Richmond, and the Monon-
gahela, with other gUnboats, sweep past
me batteries OF Port Hudson, and the
Mississippi flows forever free to ell
northern and southern crafts, | cry out
with g patriotic emotion that | cannot
suppress, if would, and would not if l
could: behold also the ships"
At the annual decoration of graves,
north snd south, among Federals ana
C0ufederates, full Justice has been done
20 the memory of those who fought on
the land IN our sad contest, but not
enough has been said Of those who on
ships deck dared and
SUFFERED ALL THINGS.
Lord God of the rivers and
the sea, help me in this ser
mon, So, We admirals, commo-
oores, commanders, captains, pilots, gun
ners, bOstswRins, sailmakers, surgeons,
>tOherS, messmstes and seamen of all
names, to use your own parlance, we
might as well get under way and stand
out toward sea. Let sll land lubbers go
ashore. Full speed now! Four bells!
Never since the sea fight of LepantO,
where three hundred royal gslleys manned
0y fifty thousand warriors, lat sunrise, Sep
TENDER q, 1911, met two hundred and fifty
royal gslleys manned by one hundred and
twenty thousand men, and in the four
hours of battle eight thousand fell on one
side and twenty-five thousand on the
other yes, never since the day when at
Actlum, thirty-one years before Christ,
Augustus, with two hundred and sixty
ships, scattered the two hundred and
twenty ships of Mark Anthony and gained
universal dominion as the prize; yea,
since the day when at Salsmis the twelve
galleys Of the PersianS, manned
0y i've hundred thousand men,
were crushed by Greeks with less
than third of that force;
yea, never since the time of Noah, the
first ship captain, has the world seen
such q miraculous creation as that Of the
American navy in 1861. There were about
TWO hundred available seamen in all the
naval stations and receiving ships, and
here and there an old vessel. Yet orders
were given to blockade $500 miles of sea
cOsst, greater than the whole coast of
Europe, and, beside that, the Ohio, Ten
nessee, Cumberland, Mississippi and
other great rivers, covering al extent OF
1000 more miles, were TO be patrolled.
No wonder the whole civilized world
burst into guffaw of laughter al the seem
ING impossibility. But the work was
done, done almost Immediately, done
and done with speed and
cO1sUmmate skill that
ECLIPSED ALL THE HISTORY
Of naval architecture. What brilliant
achievements are suggested by the mere
mention of the names of the rear admir-
ais. If all they did should be writ
EN-, every one, | suppose that even the |
world itself could not contain the books |
that should be written. But these |
names have received the honors due |
The most of them went to their graves |
under the cannonade of all the forts, |
navy yards and men of war, the flags of |
III the shipping and capitals at half mast |
But l recite to-day the deeds of our |
naval heroes who have not yet received |
appropriate recognition. "Behold also |
he ships" As we will never know what
our national prosperity is worth until we
seQ liyp what If cost I recall the unropjted